MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

1/19/10 Exchanging numbers

Ryan Theriot, Carlos Marmol and Sean Marshall exchanged salary figures with the Cubs on Tuesday. Theriot and the Cubs are $800,000 apart. The shortstop, who made $500,000 last season, his third as a starter, is seeking $3.4 million while the Cubs offered $2.6 million.

Marmol, who made $575,000 last year and heads into the 2010 season as the team’s closer, is asking for $2.5 million. The Cubs offered him $1.75 million.

Marshall, who will be competing for a spot in the rotation or could be a swingman again, asked for $1.175 million while the Cubs offered $800,000. The left-hander made $450,000 last season.

The Cubs and Theriot, Marmol and Marshall can come to an agreement at any point before the actual hearing. Hearings will be held Feb. 1-21. Arbitrators listen to arguments from both sides about the player’s value and then pick either the player’s figure or the team’s figure.

– Carrie Muskat

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6 Comments

I think Marshall is deserving of the 1.75 million as he may prove to be as valuable as he ever was in the past. It may be time to reconsider Theriot’s value as Castro and Blanco may be ready to supplant him at SS and the 3.4 MILLION could be used for starting pitching. You gotta roll the dice with Marmol and give him what he wants, we have little choice when it comes to available closers and Marmol can always be used as a quality set up man if he can’t handle the pressure of closing. All is moot however because it’s in the hands of an arbitor?? Not sure. Theriot is good but like Koyie Hill isn’t worth 700,000.00 Theriot is not 3.4 MILLION good.

Joey, I agree that a back up catcher isn’t worth that much money, especially when there is need for a reliever and a starting pitcher, both of which could be expensive acquisitions. I’m not sure whether I agree or disagree with you on Theriot, but I’ll tell you what I think about him and you can compare where we’re at on him. I do think that he should be moved to 2nd and that Blanco should be moved to SS until Castro is ready to play. I also like the idea of waiting until 2011 to introduce Castro as a starter. He appears to be the future star of the franchise and I desperately hope they don’t rush him too fast! Back to Theriot. Looking at his numbers compared to other young short stops. Aybar has a 288 career average, Hanley Ramirez is a 300+ career average with huge stolen base numbers, and Tulowitzki has a 283 career average with some huge homerun numbers. Theriot is a career 288 career average and has decent base stealing ability. Of the three SS’s I’m comparing to Theriot due to MLB experience, only one has significantly better numbers that Theriot and appropriately he is making more money, Ramirez. The point I’m making is that Theriot is in the ball park with these guys who are considered to be up and coming stars or already are stars… again Ramirez. I agree that Theriot isn’t worth 3.5 million a year, yet. However I do think he is worth 2.5-3 million as he is a necessary part of the team, whether he’s playing SS or 2nd he needs to be in the starting lineup 9 games out of 10.

pman, I like Theriot. With that said I think he may be less than decent as a base stealer and and less than average at defense. I am looking at it from a GM view, if I’m the GM and I have options from the minor leagues to replace a player that is middle of the road and at the same time save MILLIONS for future allocations I’m gonna do it. The money is better spent elsewhere. Middle infeield does seem to be the strength with our system right now with Castro and Blanco, I would take advantage of that. Certainly not going to complain if Theriot does make 3.4 mil.

Joey, I agree that Blanco would be a defensive upgrade, but I haven’t seen that he can consistently hit for average, power or steal bases. I would take Theriot’s average defense and above average batting average along with his ability to steal a base from time to time over Blanco. However, I do think that having Theriot at 2nd where there would be less pressure on him defensively and Blanco at SS for 2010 is a better move than having Fontenot or Baker at 2nd. I also reassert that Castro should spend the year in the minors and then get called up after the minor league season unless he just tears it up for two months in the minors and he would be given substantial playing time in Chicago. As long as he doesn’t sit on the bench in Chicago when he could be playing everyday in Iowa or Tennessee. I also like the idea of Castro spending the season with Ryno in Iowa. That could only do good things for his development.

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